In 2006 police seized Bernardo Provenzano, who was thought to have succeeded Salvatore “Toto” Riina (also known as “Shorty”) as supreme head of the loose federation that is the Mafia. Two months later, they captured several of Mr Provenzano’s alleged lieutenants. Last year they arrested his suspected heir-apparent, Salvatore Lo Piccolo.

The aim of this week’s Operation Perseus was to abort a bid by Cosa Nostra’s most senior mobsters at large to agree upon a new leader and to reconstitute its governing board. This “provincial commission” is not known to have existed since 1993, when Mr Riina disappeared into a high-security jail. The Carabinieri learnt of the plan when they eavesdropped on mob meetings, culminating in a summit last month attended by 31 leading Mafiosi. Other meetings were held in a garage, a dilapidated house and—yes—a barber’s shop. The idea, said one boss, was that “if we have to do something, we all take responsibility.” For what? Mr Grasso noted that the role of the provincial commission was to decide on big operations like the war the Mafia waged on the state with bombings and assassinations in the early 1990s.

Several other questions remain unanswered. One is whether Mr Riina was ever truly replaced as Cosa Nostra’s boss of bosses; the overheard mobsters appeared to view him as the ultimate authority still. Another is why Mr Lo Presti died. Could he not face the prison regime that awaits Mafia bosses? Or did he fear something else? According to leaks from the investigation, Mr Lo Presti led a faction at odds with the strategy endorsed from jail by the 78-year-old Mr Riina, whose other nickname is “The Beast”.

© The Economist Newspaper Limited 2008